Senior biz reporter leaves Fort Worth paper

Bob Cox, a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has left the paper for a job in corporate communications.

Cox writes, “Effective Monday, Nov. 26, I will be going to work for American Eurocopter, in Grand Prairie, as senior manager of communications and media relations. I will, as we say in the news business, be going over to the dark side. Instead of asking the questions, I’ll be answering them.

“It’s a move I make with some sadness, having been a daily newspaper business reporter for 33 years. Most of that time I’ve covered business and, to one degree or another, aviation, aerospace and defense. It’s been a fascinating ride (flight?) reporting some great stories. I’ve written about the business jet industry extensively, while working for the Wichita Eagle, and the big iron makers at Boeing and Airbus.

“Then here in Fort Worth it was Lockheed Martin and fighter jets and, much to my surprise, the really interesting helicopter industry — Bell Helicopter and American Eurocopter and Sikorsky — and the numerous smaller, innovative and successful companies that are in the industry.

“By necessity I’ve learned far more about aviation and the science of it than I could have ever imagined. I’ve met and gotten to know some really smart, great people in the industry that took the time to explain and teach, even if they didn’t always like what I had written. I’ve tried to repay them by being accurate and fair and attempting to impart their knowledge to the readers.”

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.